Kirk Herbstreit Delivers Passionate, Emotional Speech on Social Injustice

The former Ohio State quarterback and current College Football Analyst for ESPN fought through tears on Saturday morning as he pleaded for things to change.

College GameDay is arguably the most popular shows in the country during Saturdays in the Fall for so many reasons - not the least of which is the extremely well-respected talent lineup that discuss all of the important issues in college football.

Today, as college football season officially kicks off, College GameDay took a "virtual" center stage as it did a remote production because of the pandemic. But that didn't dampened the effect of perhaps the most passionate plea of the year in sports.

College football analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit took a few minutes to share his thoughts and feelings about how racial injustice is impacting our society. As he fought through tears, Herbstreit shared how being in a football locker room teaches young men to trust one another and remove prejudice. His passionate speech took social media by storm.

You can watch his emotional comments in the video provided by College GameDay.

Heartfelt and powerful.

This is about more than football. pic.twitter.com/cbnRsjfDgd

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 5, 2020

“It's remarkable to see players have an opportunity to come together and this show, with Maria (Taylor) giving them that platform to express how they feel,” Herbstreit said. “If you're a white player in these locker rooms, it's incumbent on you to really help with the change. I think Trevor Lawrence has been involved. I think it's one thing to have rallies. It's one thing to skip practices...to make a statement. My question is, what's next? What will lead to change? I was talking to David Shaw, the head coach of Stanford, he shared a quote to me and it reminded me... from Benjamin Franklin. ‘Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as to those who are.’

“The black community is hurting. How do you listen to these stories and not feel pain and not want to help? Wearing a hoodie and putting your hands at 10-2. Oh god, I better look out because I'm wearing Nike gear. What are we talking about? You can't relate to that if you're white but you can listen. You can try to help because this is not okay. It's just not. We gotta do better man. We gotta lock arm and arm and be together. In a football locker room, that's gone. We gotta do better.”

Stay tuned to BuckeyesNow and all of our social media outlets (@BuckeyesNowSI) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for continued coverage!